


Potential

by twowritehands



Category: The Middle
Genre: Donaheck, M/M, Sexl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:02:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6157431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twowritehands/pseuds/twowritehands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Sean shows up with flowers</p>
            </blockquote>





	Potential

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by the lovely aphoenixinwriting

Sean makes the three and a half hour drive to Gunford with his mind made up. Ever since seeing _Flat Lands_ , he hasn't stopped thinking about that furnace closet when he was twelve. Axl can play it casual all he wants, but Sean can't take it anymore. He _has_ to discuss it.

Axl has texted him the temporary address of his new pad with an invitation to come check it out. Sean reckons it’s now or never.

He finds Axl with ease; kinda hard to miss the dingy old rust bucket of an RV sitting with a front wheel up on the curb in the Arby's parking lot.

Sean’s heart is racing as he approaches the door. The windshield has curtains drawn across it. Blinds cover the other windows. For this, Sean is glad. What a total dork he must look, crossing a freggin Arby’s parking lot with a bouquet of flowers.

Sean knocks on the door. It feels like the whole vehicle rattles, and he winces. Okay, no need to knock so hard; got it. He raps again more softly.

The door swings open. Axl beams at him with his usual exuberant greeting, “Sean! Man, I” --then he sees the flowers, and his greeting falters as his face falls then turns a little pink. “--oh, uh. Flowers.”

Sean grimaces, “Is it TOTALLY lame?”

Axl clears his throat as he quickly stands aside and waves Sean into the RV with a nervous look around the empty parking lot. Sean hops up the two little steps into the cramped and musky space.

Sean grins at the mess. It's like Axl took his sloppy side of the room he shared with Brick and put it on wheels.

Axl clips the little door shut behind them, asking furiously, “What the _hell_ , Donahue?”

He takes the flowers right from Sean’s hand. “Bros don't bring each other flowers!”

“They don't kiss in closets, either.” Sean sasses back. (The sass is new, but he’s _tired_ of Axl kicking this topic aside. He’s gonna make it front and center.)

Axl scoffs, “ _One_ closet, _ten_ years ago, _by accident_! It doesn't count!” It’s clear this argument is well-rehearsed in Axl’s head. His voice keeps rising in both volume and octaves, “I thought we were going to be cool about this, dude!”

“I am cool about it,” Sean says with a shrug, and an easy smile--the one his mom calls ‘the heart stopper’--aimed right at Axl Heck. He leans on the counter, hands in his organic woven hoodie pockets, “I like that you were my first kiss.”

Those blue eyes go huge and round as Axl gapes at him. Sean waits it out, grinning. Finally Axl explodes, “Why are you so cool about this?”

Sean frowns, “Five seconds ago you _wanted_ cool.”

“Not like this!” Axl shrieks, “I WANT you to be FREAKING OUT on the inside, but then super casual _and your regular dude_ self on the outside! Like a normal guy!”

“What is there to freak out about? One kiss, ten years ago. By accident. Like you said.”

“Then what are the flowers all about, huh?” Axl lifts them and shakes them none too gently. A few petals fall to the floor. Aw. “What kind of twisted MIND GAMES ARE YOU PLAYING?” Axl cries.

Sean chuckles, keeping his voice calm, “They’re a thank you. A token of my appreciation.”

Axl’s brow scrunches in this unbelievably cute ways as his mouth hangs open. Clearly Sean’s calm is the wrench in Axl’s brain.

Sean continues with everything he’s been waiting to say, “All this time I thought I kissed Suzie Baker. You know, along with you and, like, the rest of the basketball team that year. And I've always been kinda bummed about it. Suzie was clearly just checking off a list. None of those guys ever mattered to her, so why should I? But now,” Sean shrugs, “Now my first kiss was my best friend. It’s nice.”

Axl closes his mouth and lifts the bouquet to his face, looking down at the petals with a pensive frown, “Well, when you put it like that, it's pretty rad.”

“Right?” Sean asks and lifts his hand. Axl high fives him. It feels normal between them again, not like Axl is forcing it. Sean motions to the bouquet. “Anyway, I've always gotten flowers for everyone I've kissed. It feels wrong not to give you some just because you're a dude. Gender equality and all of that.”

“Thanks,” Axl says, and Sean can tell his friend means it. He watches as Axl fills a Big Gulp cup with water and puts the flowers in them like a vase. Then Axl snorts, “I can see why girls like getting flowers so much. It's kind of flattering.”

“Yeah?” Sean’s heart turns over in his chest. He’d been aiming for flattery. “Good. Maybe--” his resolve wavers and nearly breaks, but when Axl looks around at him, he finds it in him to finish what he started. What he came here to do. “Maybe we can go out sometime? See what else is flattering?”

Axl guffaws. “Like a date?”

Sean shrugs, feeling unsure and foolish, “Just an idea.”

“Sure,” Axl chirps suddenly, and he seems to find it as hard to look directly at Sean as Sean finds it to look at Axl. He shrugs and mumbles, “I mean, it could be fun. Like hanging out, buuuut…” he draws the word out, squinting, “wiiiiith…” he tilts his head, “potential.”

Relief and excitement sing through Sean’s veins. “Potential! Right!”

They stand there in the tiny RV kitchen, smiling and nodding and smiling. Then an awkward silence falls so Sean kicks into gear, “Well, I've got a long drive back to Notre Dame so, I guess I should hit the road.”

“Yeah okay,” Axl says agreeably, “Um, text me whenever about--you know--what we were talking about.”

“Our date,” Sean says with another one of those broad heart stopper smiles.

“Yeah,” Axl murmurs, blushing as he turns away and opens the door for Sean.

They part ways with casual see you later’s and Sean gets behind the wheel of his car feeling like a million bucks. He drums on the steering wheel, singing to the radio with the windows down the whole way back.


End file.
